


A Magizoologist’s Tail

by archiescamander



Category: Fantastic Beasts - Fandom, Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 13:25:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17060603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/archiescamander/pseuds/archiescamander
Summary: This story follows the life of Archibald McMorran in his Hogwarts years. It is based in the ensuing years of the Battle of Hogwarts and Archie is in his fifth year; in 2004. We'll follow his adventures, friendships and of course his creatures, as he forms friendships, relationships and experiences the best years of his life.





	1. An Eventful Potions Class

It was a drizzly, mundane Thursday morning in October and Archie McMorran was stirred by a quiet sound in his ear. He rolled over to see the source of the sound, only to discover Sylvester, his Bowtruckle, who was stood precariously on his pillow, trying not to fall over. 

"Hi Sylvester," Archie said in a tired voice as he stretched his arms. He threw his duvet off and his feet found his fleece-lined slippers on the cold, morning floor. The other Hufflepuff boys were still asleep under their quilts and Sylvester tugged at Archie's pyjama sleeve. 

"Yes, alright Syl, give me a second!" Archie laughed, as the Bowtruckle climbed up onto his shoulder and up into the boy's tousled, brown locks.

"Well, I hope you're enjoying yourself Syl," said Archie, "but Bumble will be back soon and if he sees you there, then you're in trouble." Bumble was Archie's owl, (short for Owlbus Bumbledore.) He was a gorgeous tawny owl with feathers in every shade of brown and magnificent wings, although he wasn't very fond of Sylvester the Bowtruckle. 

Archie looked out of the high, circular windows in the Hufflepuff Dormitory, to see the dew glazed grass, which rippled in the early morning wind, with sunlight bouncing off the spiderwebs. He turned back to the task at hand; wrestling Sylvester off his head and getting into his clothes. Having succeeded with the former, Archie put on his robes, picked up his wand from his bedside table, put it in his inside pocket and made his way up to the Great Hall for breakfast.

As he sat down at the table and grabbed a piece of buttered toast from the rack, his favourite teacher, Professor Edwardson, came bumbling down the Great Hall towards where Archie was sat.

"Archie, my lad! How are you today?" he asked, with his tea stained napkin still tucked into his shirt collar. 

"Not bad sir. I've got Potions first but Care of Magical Creatures later, so that'll be a godsend!" Archie replied with a grin. Sylvester popped out of his inner pocket to wave at Professor Edwardson.

"Morning Sylvester!" He said as he caught sight of the Bowtruckle. "Now Archie, I wanted to ask you if you've learnt that Rimsky Karkaroff piano piece yet, Eleanor needs it for the concert on Monday."

"It's all done Professor, don't worry!" Archie said, as he polished off his toast. 

"Super. You're a gent Arch. I'll see you at lunchtime. Don't be late!" 

"I'll try sir!" Archie chuckled. He drank the remainder of his Pumpkin Juice before getting up to go and get his bag, ready for Potions with Professor 

*

Archie was stood outside the door to the Potions Classroom along with the other Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors in his year. A patter of footsteps was heard from along the corridor, as a blonde, flustered girl came hurling around the corner, with her books slipping from her arms, reminiscent of trying to catch a lost bar of soap in a bathtub. 

"Hi Mais," Archie said as he grabbed the girl's books as they inevitably fell from her hands. Maisie Smyth, a Gryffindor, was Archie's best friend, due to a shared interest in magical creatures and both feeling slightly out of place in the school. 

"Hey Archie," gasped Maisie, trying to catch her breath. "I'm not late, am I? Hagrid wanted to talk to me about his new Bowtruckle." 

"No, you're alright. I'd better go and see Hagrid later, I can't wait to see wh-" Archie faltered, as a voice bellowed through the corridor. Slughorn had arrived and had told them to enter. 

*

"Now class, today we're going to be brewing the Wit-Sharpening Potion. Now, find a partner, get to your workbenches and we'll crack on, shall we?”

Archie and Maisie gave each other a glance, followed by a small smirk as they walked towards a bench near the back of the room together. They grabbed the instructions on their desk, and began organising their ingredients. 

“Hey, how's Sylvester today?" Maisie asked, as the Bowtruckle climbed out of Archie's pocket at the mention of his name.

"He's alright. A bit clingy as per usual," he replied, as Sylvester scuttled across the table to Maisie's arm. "Did you hear about the visitor next week?" Archie said, struggling to contain himself on the matter. 

"Yeah I did. I'm so excited!" Maisie squealed, causing a few heads to turn in her direction. 

"You two at the back, settle down now," Slughorn said. 

"Sorry Professor," Archie replied, as he added the Armadillo bile to the cauldron and gave it a stir. 

The two carried on talking and before they knew it, Slughorn proclaimed "Right class, that's the end of the lesson. Come up to the front and present your Wit-Sharpening Potions!" Archie and Maisie walked up to the front with their cauldron and placed it down in front of Slughorn. 

"Right you two, let's see if this Potion works!" he chortled as he drew a mouse from underneath his desk. Archie began to worry now if he'd added the right amount of ginger roots, as it was being tested on an animal. Slughorn poured a spoonful of the Potion down the mouse's throat and it began to writhe about. Beginning to think he'd done something wrong, Archie started panicking a little, but shortly after, the mouse returned to normal, only something had changed. Archie heard a voice he didn't recognise to be one of his classmates or Slughorn's for that matter. 

"Merlin's beard McMorran! What have you done?!" Slughorn exclaimed in a mixture of shock and delight. "It's talking!" Archie was utterly taken aback by this. He knew that Potioneers and spell makers had been trying for decades to make a concoction or an incantation that could make an animal talk, and he'd done it by accident in his Potions Class. 

"I have to tell Professor McGonagall about this, not to mention write to the Ministry!" Slughorn gleefully said, surreptitiously looking for his parchment and quill, whilst trying to maintain concentration in this conversation. "Well done lad. How on earth did you do it?" He followed up, looking bewildered.

"No idea Professor. I think I might've been a bit heavy handed with the ginger roots but that can't have been it." Archie replied, beginning to recount what he put into the Potion. As the three of them pondered over what had happened, Sylvester snuck back into Archie's robe pocket with a sprig of something in his twig hands. 

"Very well. Smyth and McMorran, 20 points to each of you, although I'm sure you'll receive more in the near future as word spreads around the Wizarding World of this incredible discovery. Class dismissed." 

Archie and Maisie left the Potions Classroom with a slight sense of pride and befuddlement. As the door slammed shut behind them, Archie said "What in the name of Merlin just happened?!" as a grin of pure joy and excitement spread across his face. 

"No idea Arch. I just wish we could have got some of that Potion to test on some of your creatures, but Slughorn kept it," Maisie replied in slight disappointment. 

"Do you think me that dim?" said Archie as his grin widened with a wink of his eye. He pulled a small vial out of his pocket with a bit of the Potion in it. He and Maisie beamed at each other and took off, running down the corridor, robes billowing out behind them, still smiling as their brains started whirring with ideas. Oh, what an interesting few days they had ahead of them...


	2. Behind the Door

It was lunchtime on that same drizzly Thursday, yet the sun was slowly creeping through the clouds. Archie and Maisie slowed running as they reached a small, oak door on the fourth floor, still grinning with joy at their new discovery, waiting to try out this incredible Potion that Archie had created not 15 minutes ago. Archie stepped forward and opened the small door. Inside lay a small, dull broom cupboard, packed with every object under the sun that students had chucked in there. He checked to see no one was in there before shutting the door again and stepping back.

"Would you like to do the honours, Maisie?" Archie asked, as he pulled the small vial out of his pocket, containing the Potion.

"No, you can do it today," she replied, looking curiously at the Potion. Archie took his bag from his shoulder and leant it against the door and then proceeded to pull his wand from his holster under his robes and bring it up to shoulder height, brandishing it and pointing it towards the door. He performed a strange number of movements, bringing his wand up and around himself in a spiral, as it began to give off orange sparks. Maisie watched on in amazement as Archie performed this 'ritual.' He finished by twirling himself in a circle as he raised his arm. His wand was bursting with magic, and he aimed it at the door and exclaimed:

"Animalis capacious incolumitas extremis!"

Archie's wand erupted with orange light and hit him and Maisie with wind, almost knocking them to the ground. The spell shot towards his bag and after a few seconds of the spell almost thinking of what to do, the orange light rose up out of the bag and danced around before hitting the door with a BANG! It started to weave itself along the wrought iron grilles and along the sides of the wood as it seeped through into the grain and ran along it, like liquid gold. After a few seconds of watching this mesmerising spell, it sank into the door and all seemed normal, except his bag had vanished in a flash of light.

"Let's go," Archie said with a grin, as he approached the door, who's handle had a slight orange tinge. He lifted the latch and pushed it open, and he was greeted by the start of a staircase with walls on each side. The stairwell was dingy, with a single lamp on the grey brick wall. Sylvester jumped off of Archie's shoulder and leapt onto the thin, iron banister and slid down it with great speed. 

"This never gets old," said Maisie, exhilarated. She followed Archie down the short flight of stairs until they reached a small landing with the stairs carrying on down to the right. She turned her head and her jaw dropped, as it did every time she went down there. 

Before the two of them stood a vast, vast room, more like a separate world really, which seemed endless, filled with a labyrinth of staircases creating a sort of lattice across the room. There were brick, cairn-like doorways in the walls, all the way up the room with staircases leading up and away from them. Each of them led to enclosures, habitats for Archie's creatures which he'd enchanted with Atmospheric Charms to mimic the animals specific environment. There was also an entirely separate section for his wand workshop; an amateur interest of his and a section for plants which Professor Sprout has helped him grow, with the aim of using them to heal his creatures. Archie and Maisie stood atop a staircase which led them down to the ground, with numerous other staircases leading off of it. 

There was an Augurey, several Fwoopers, Billywigs and many, many Doxies flying about the place with Nifflers, scurrying about, hoarding every shiny thing they could find in their burrow, down on the ground floor where Archie can keep an eye on them. There were Streelers halfway up the walls, Kneazles could be heard purring from their enclosure on the second layer, the pen of Mooncalves stood on the first layer and there was a tree of Bowtruckles which Sylvester had headed towards. 

There was an abundance of Magizoology equipment scattered around the enormous room, including medical equipment, capturing devices and notebooks full of observations about the creatures. In Archie's wand department, he kept a workshop, filled with rack upon rack of wands he'd made and Ollivander had gifted to him, being his apprentice. He did repairs for fellow students and often supplied a replacement for those who had lost their wand. He had a woodworking bench and a cabinet filled with cores from some of his creatures like unicorn hair and Kneazle whiskers. He had stacks of books on wand wood properties and centuries of wandlore history books that, again, Ollivander had lent him to research this ancient, complex branch of magic.

Over on the left hand side of the room, Archie kept a gigantic greenhouse which had a plethora of plants growing in it; most for Potions and remedies for his creatures but also for pure Herbological interest, such as exotic plants that Professor Sprout has lent him to investigate the effects of on creatures, (all harmless of course.)

"Home at last," sighed Archie, walking down the stairs to the bottom of the room, which was a wood-clad floor/platform mixed with some flagstones. The floor was where many of Archie's numerous workbenches and cabinets full of bits and bobs were and where the operating tables and medical supplies were kept. A grand piano could be seen in a corner, which Archie played almost daily, often with Maisie singing or playing as well. 

In the centre of the room, there was a glass tube, which held an orange beam of magic in the centre, that appeared to reach the ceiling and then dissipate into the rest of the room. This stream of light was emanating from Archie's bag, which was sat on a wooden pedestal on the ground floor, at the base of the tube. It was what appeared to be "powering" this room, as if the room were an extension of what is in his bag. 

"I'm sure I've told you before, but my grandfather was lucky enough to visit Newt Scamander's house and he took some photos for me of his basement. That's what I tried to recreate here, but with my own style added in, plus the wand and plant departments obviously," he laughed.

"Yeah, you said. It's so incredible in here. I never get used to it," Maisie replied. 

Archie walked across the room to the Niffler section where he picked up a black and grey speckled one. He drew out the Potion vial from his pocket and removed the stopper.

"I'm a bit scared Archie. Do you reckon it will wear off or will he be talking forever?" Maisie asked nervously. 

"I'm hoping it'll wear off. The Wit-Sharpening Potion certainly does and whatever happened to this Potion can't be drastically different," he replied, still uncertain of what would happen.  
"Here we go," Archie said, grabbing his wand.

He pointed his wand at the vial and then moved it up into the air. A few drops of the Potion rose out of the vial and followed Archie's wand towards the Niffler. Maisie opened the Niffler's mouth and the drops of liquid fell into his mouth. A few seconds later, he made a strange sound but, as the mouse did, he returned back to normal instantly.

"Errrmm... hello?" Archie asked hesitantly, waiting to hear the Niffler's response.

"Got any silver?" asked the Niffler. "Oi, you there, yeh you. Have y'got any silver?" He asked again rudely, gesturing his paw in Archie's direction. 

"Maisie, w-watch him for a second," Archie said, dumbfounded. "I'll go and g..get something from his.. ermm...cage." 

"I'll try," said Maisie, who was as shocked as Archie. She removed her shiny hair pin from her long, blonde hair, which was now falling down her back, so as to discourage the Niffler from jumping into her hair to steal it. Again.

A few seconds later, Archie returned with a small, silver bracelet for the Niffler.   
"Cheers mister," he said upon receiving his silver. 

Archie nodded in the Niffler's direction, unable to summon the words to respond.   
What had he done? He was both shocked and exhilarated by this new discovery. But one thing was for certain:

Neither of them could wait to show Hagrid...


End file.
